On 28/09/2012, Jon Samuels wrote:
> Don,
> So do I. I wish Sony would remaster a lot of other wonderful things
> too, but the corporate belief is that reissues that cost money (i. e.,
> ones that require work from an analog source) won't sell in sufficient
> numbers to make a profit, except in very rare exceptions. I'd like to
> believe that they are wrong about that, but it is certainly true that
> reissue sales have been plummeting for years. As an illustrative
> example, back in the mid 1990s, one year I remastered 65 CDs, and BMG
> issued 350. Last year, I remastered 3 CDs. Jon Samuels
>
The former "major" companies are not making new recordings either. They
are however reissuing their reissues, in bigger and bigger boxes.
All the new issues come from companies such as Naxos, Brilliant,
Hyperion, BIS, Naive, and a horde of smaller companies. Or in many cases
from the orchestras or artists themselves.
Much the same seems to apply in the pop or world music fields.
The likely sources of good reissues now would be companies such as
Pentatone that license material from the archives of the old majors. The
real concern is how the costs of maintaining the archives will be
covered.
Then loudly cried the bold Sir Bedivere:
"Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
For now I see the true old times are dead,
When every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight.
Such times have been not since the light that led
The holy Elders with the gift of myrrh.
But now the whole ROUND TABLE is dissolved
Which was an image of the mighty world;
And I, the last, go forth companionless,
And the days darken round me, and the years,
Among new men, strange faces, other minds."
Regards
--
Don Cox
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